Juvenile fiction never did much for me. "Twilight" seemed bloodless and cold and "Harry Potter" never charmed me.*
But "The Hunger Games" -- well, that's a different story.
"The Hunger Games" succeeds the same way "The Da Vinci Code" did. That is, it succeeds not through great writing but through superb pacing, a great plot and a surplus of dramatic cliffhangers. It helps that this story of a girl plucked from obscurity and forced to participate in a gladiator-like fight to the death with other children is exceptionally dark and grim for a young-adult novel. Author Suzanne Collins handles the violence with skill; "The Hunger Games" is not explicit and gory, but she refers to it in such a way that it is still very unsettling.
I finished this baby in the space of two or three days. That is a testament both to its easy-to-read format (sentences so short they are incomplete, double-spaced lines, huge font) and to Collins' ability to write a book that's hard to put down.
Thanks to "The Hunger Games," I might no longer treat young-adult fiction with immediate scorn. (Notice I said "might")
Postscript: I have a confession -- I was not at all interested in this book until I saw the preview for the upcoming movie version. Then I was all like "I'mma read that book." Yes, I am one of those people.
*I really can't control the bad puns today. Sorry about that.
2 comments:
Now reading book 2. Elisabeth brought Hunger Games over to Germany. She said she feels like someone who introduced her friends to crack. :)
I did feel like those people too, but just this once, and 'cause this book hook me up!
Ps i like your blog :B
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